Campus garden invites classes outdoors
By Angela Kay Garvey
Northern Arizona University’s organic gardener and resident horticulturist, Jan Busco, reaches into the raised garden bed and plucks a leaf from a green succulent, similar to spinach, known as Miner’s Lettuce. Through the use of season protectors and the creation of “microclimates” this leafy green isn’t the only plant nearing harvest time.
Behind the innocuous Social and Behavioral Sciences West building, spans a massive garden of an estimated acre in cultivation. The Sustainable Living and Urban Gardening garden, or SSLUG Garden, as it is known, is the largest gardening effort on campus.
The garden was initially started a decade ago by a graduate student named Ian McDonald for his thesis project.
“He thought growing local food was important and that college students, our entire society in fact, had probably lost the skills to grow food,” said Busco.
McDonald’s project has grown into something much bigger than he could have predicted. The SSLUG Garden is now used for numerous classes, including ethnic studies and first year seminars, as well as a space where individuals from the campus and wider Flagstaff community can come and learn more about organic gardening.
“It’s a very relaxing space and people, when they can, they bring their classes outdoors,” said Busco.
The garden offers a hands-on learning experience with everything from producing vegan compost to gardening in pallets and straw bales to harvesting in a high elevation climate.
Busco, besides helping maintain the garden itself, is in charge of looking after funding.
“Funding for the garden is always up in the air,” said Busco. “It seems every three years the question comes up if NAU is going to continue funding the garden.”
Over the years, the SSLUG Garden has received funds from the College of Arts and Letters, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Sustainability office, among others.
“Budgets get tighter and tighter, but we’re good through the end of this semester,” said Busco.
Currently the SSLUG action-learning teams are working with Northland Family Help Center youth shelter. The team is working to cultivate a better garden than the one already at the center, while taking in consideration what the youth want to plant in the garden. A specific bed for the center is also expected to be placed in the SSLUG Garden with all the food produced going to the center.
“It’s a community garden in an interesting way. People share what’s here,” said Busco.
